The Question of Talent
“Oh, little Susie is so talented.”
“My son has no special talent.”
“I went to see him yesterday—what a talented musician!”
“I don’t have natural talent, so I’m not very good.”
These are all common things that we might hear or say around the subject of “talent,” whether it’s in music, sports, academics, or anything else. Growing up, talent was a black-and-white thing; you either had talent, or you didn’t. If you had talent, you could join the ranks of the chosen few stars in town or in the studio. If you didn’t have talent, you could expect nothing special, and usually you would quit pretty soon. Teachers favored talent, parents envied or boasted talent, and kids learned to see themselves through the lens of talent, which they either magically had or not.
I was also steeped in this worldview for a long time, and I’m very familiar with it. However, as my study of music and life deepens, I am moving away from this worldview more and more, and I hope to be completely free from it someday, both for myself and my students. One of my teachers, when asked what he thinks of talent, said: “Forget about it and do your work.” No doubt, some things come easier to some people than others. We all have different inclinations and gifts. The problem begins when we focus too much on the inherent talent rather than the effort in honing it. Talent is like a raw crystal you sometimes find in rocks; it’s useless until it is refined, through a long, difficult process, into a piece of jewelry. Those who are praised for their special talent early on may never learn the value of hard work, which is the only thing that will continue to carry them forward in the long run. Those who are told they have no talent and treated (even subtly) as a less worthy student, may give up prematurely, again not learning the value of hard work. It’s a losing game for everyone.
At bottom, talent-focused thinking is made of two pillars that are both detrimental to learning: lack of responsibility and comparison.
Responsibility
Talent is something that one is born with, given by luck, and not earned by their own work. Therefore, it is outside of anyone’s control and responsibility. If you are not making progress in something, it is too easy to say, “I just don’t have the talent,” rather than examining what you can do to improve the outcomes, which is often a lot. Conversely, when you see someone excelling at something, it is all too easy to say, “She’s just talented, lucky her,” and overlook the efforts that she has made, which is something you can emulate to improve your own game. By attributing success to something outside our control, we also relinquish our own responsibility (and power) in creating that success.
Comparison
Talent-focused thinking is also almost always accompanied by a sense of comparison. If you attribute your success to talent, you may feel threatened by other talented people, or those with even greater talent than you. If you define yourself as someone with no talent, you may feel envious or even angry toward those whom you see as talented. Either way, the focus gets taken away from your authority over your own learning.
One of my favorite pianists, Hiromi Uehara, when asked if she ever felt intimidated in the presence of so many talented musicians when she first got to Berklee College of Music, says, “Never.” She was just excited and inspired to be in a place with so many great musicians. She says this with such innocence and calm confidence, that it left a great impression on me. Undoubtedly, she herself is one of those people that would be categorized as being “talented,” but I think there is much more to her success than just pure innate ability that she got by chance.
She attributes her positive mindset partly to how her mother raised her: never comparing her to anyone else, either for something she did well or something she did not do so well. Even when she won a competition, her mother would not tell her that she was “the best” but simply say that she did well, thus always keeping the focus on her own growth and not anyone else’s. Later in the interview, she also mentions the importance of discipline and daily practice that is required to achieve her goals, which she plans on continuing even when she’s 90 years old.
(You can watch the full interview here:)
From this and my own experience over the years, I can think of three characteristics of the “positive mindset” that matters a lot more than “talent” in the long run:
A deep, true love of your art/subject, and the discipline to hone it daily;
An orientation towards sharing a gift with the world, rather than performing to impress others or win something;
A long-term view and humility that looks forward to continued growth and new challenges.
So what if we said these things instead?
“Oh, little Susie has a true love of music.”
“My son likes music and he works hard.”
“I went to see that musician yesterday—what a gift to the world!”
“Music doesn’t always come easy to me, but I enjoy learning it.”
Happy journeying!